Week Two – Getting Started
:-8
Well, I must tell you… that is how I feel!
I had a terrible week in the personal aspect; but I managed to survive fine. I had the head back yesterday and I used the entire day to read, do the questionnaire and watch all the videos.
Did you say 4 hours a week? Uhmm… I must be very slow!
Anyway; I would like to start with the book. It was interesting, although it felt a little repetitive and obvious some times. We know that when we teach online we can teach from anywhere! However, I loved the part where it says that to teach online you have to be a people person. That is something I always thought; you can actually have more one on one contact with a student via online than in a class with 35 students. Looking at the screencast videos of the instructors I saw how some of them have a chat window open in their CMS. I loved that idea, and I agree, if you are not a people person, you would not like to chat or answer questions one on one.
As I said before, I do not teach online yet; but I would love to do it one day. I use many resources I learn from this type of courses as much as I can on my class Blackboard. My questionnaire result number was 10; I truly believe that students should construct their own knowledge and that instructors should be open and pay attention to the students needs and learning styles. It is difficult; I am not saying I do it; but certainly, at least I try.
As for the Getting Started Chart; I think it is an excellent starting point. Thank you POT team, this week material and the questionnaire are truly an excellent starting point for our future online classes. Can’t wait to start planing one!
Have a great weekend and see you next week,
Laura
Tags: getting started, POTCERT, week two
September 15th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Hi Laura: I too am a bit skeptical about the claim this work can be done in four hours. So I encourage you to pick and choose a little bit and not feel pressured to spend more than four hours a week or to feel like you need to cover every single page and video.
Hang in there!
Jim
September 16th, 2012 at 1:56 am
Thank you Jim,
This was really a bad week for me. I am sure the following ones are going to be better. I love this subject and I am exiting about learning more. I did not mean to complain.
Hanging there!
Laura
September 16th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Oh no! Sorry to hear you had a difficult week.
Hang in there, Laura.
Later on this semester, it might be fun to get all the local language instructors together for coffee to brain storm ideas about how students might construct their own knowledge in an online language class. I’ve gotten such great ideas from my colleagues and there are 5 MCC language instructors enrolled in the POT cert class this time!
Pilar
September 18th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Hi Laura,
Nice to see the variety of different subject area teachers here. I think it says a lot about teachers as curious folk and naturally willing to cross silos “outside school” that seem so difficult to cross within the institution. Wonder what it is about the online environment that seems to bypass the politics of being together in person? Are we better behaved online? I know our online students seem more determined with less of an urge to fool around–which I’m not sure is a result of being online as much as a result of deciding for themselves to upgrade their education.
Our department builds mostly trades and nursing courses at the moment and I’m curious to see how language instruction works online. That might be our next assignment.
November 20th, 2012 at 1:07 am
I enjoyed your post. I also feel like I spend a lot of time on POT. I think for some of us (possibly you), we do everything on the “checklist” twice–rereading things and such which is why it appears to be more time consuming. But we’re learning as we go. The whole concept of online teaching is certainly different than my personal experience as a former student. I’m enjoy the learning process.